the New York region long after the the world . Not bound to a single
fall of New Netherland and their in- crop as was Virginia, North and
tegration into the British colonial South Carolina also produced and
system . Their sharp-stepped gable exported rice and indigo, a blue dye
roofs became a permanent part of obtained from native plants that was
the city’s architecture, and their used in coloring fabric . By 1750 more
merchants gave Manhattan much than 100,000 people lived in the two
of its original bustling, commercial colonies of North and South Caroli-
atmosphere .
na . Charleston, South Carolina, was
the region’s leading port and trading
THE SOUTHERN COLONIES
center .
I
In the southernmost colonies, as
n contrast to New England and everywhere else, population growth
the middle colonies, the Southern in the backcountry had special sig-
colonies were predominantly rural nificance . German immigrants
settlements .
and Scots-Irish, unwilling to live in
By the late 17th century, Virgin- the original Tidewater settlements
ia’s and Maryland’s economic and where English influence was strong,
social structure rested on the great pushed inland . Those who could not
planters and the yeoman farmers . secure fertile land along the coast, or
The planters of the Tidewater re- who had exhausted the lands they
gion, supported by slave labor, held held, found the hills farther west a
most of the political power and the bountiful refuge . Although their
best land . They built great houses, hardships were enormous, restless
adopted an aristocratic way of life, settlers kept coming; by the 1730s
and kept in touch as best they could they were pouring into the Shenan-
with the world of culture overseas .
doah Valley of Virginia . Soon the in-
The yeoman farmers, who worked terior was dotted with farms .
smal er tracts, sat in popular assem-
Living on the edge of Native
blies and found their way into political American country, frontier families
office . Their outspoken independence built cabins, cleared the wilderness,
was a constant warning to the oligar- and cultivated maize and wheat .
chy of planters not to encroach too The men wore leather made from
far upon the rights of free men .
the skin of deer or sheep, known
The settlers of the Carolinas as buckskin; the women wore gar-
quickly learned to combine agricul- ments of cloth they spun at home .
ture and commerce, and the mar- Their food consisted of venison,
ketplace became a major source of wild turkey, and fish . They had their
prosperity . Dense forests brought own amusements: great barbecues,
revenue: Lumber, tar, and resin from dances, housewarmings for newly
the longleaf pine provided some of married couples, shooting matches,
the best shipbuilding materials in and contests for making quilted
26
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
blankets . Quilt-making remains an land colonies, except for Rhode Is-
American tradition today .
land, followed its example .
The Pilgrims and Puritans had
SOCIETY, SCHOOLS, AND
brought their own little librar-
CULTURE
ies and continued to import books
A
from London . And as early as the
significant factor deterring the 1680s, Boston booksellers were do-
emergence of a powerful aristocratic ing a thriving business in works of
or gentry class in the colonies was classical literature, history, politics,
the ability of anyone in an estab- philosophy, science, theology, and
lished colony to find a new home on belles-lettres . In 1638 the first print-
the frontier . Time after time, domi- ing press in the English colonies and
nant Tidewater figures were obliged the second in North America was in-
to liberalize political policies, land- stalled at Harvard College .
grant requirements, and religious
The first school in Pennsylvania
practices by the threat of a mass exo- was begun in 1683 . It taught reading,
dus to the frontier .
writing, and keeping of accounts .
Of equal significance for the
Thereafter, in some fashion, every
future were the foundations of Quaker community provided for the
American education and culture es- elementary teaching of its children .
tablished during the colonial period . More advanced training — in classi-
Harvard College was founded in cal languages, history, and literature
1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts . — was offered at the Friends Public
Near the end of the century, the School, which still operates in Phila-
College of William and Mary was delphia as the William Penn Charter
established in Virginia . A few School . The school was free to the
years later, the Collegiate School of poor, but parents were required to
Connecticut, later to become Yale pay tuition if they were able .
University, was chartered .
In Philadelphia, numerous private
Even more noteworthy was the schools with no religious affiliation
growth of a school system main- taught languages, mathematics, and
tained by governmental authority . natural science; there were also night
The Puritan emphasis on reading schools for adults . Women were not
directly from the Scriptures under- entirely overlooked, but their edu-
scored the importance of literacy . In cational opportunities were limited
1647 the Massachusetts Bay Colony to training in activities that could
enacted the “ye olde deluder Satan” be conducted in the home . Private
Act, requiring every town having teachers instructed the daughters
more than 50 families to establish of prosperous Philadelphians in
a grammar school (a Latin school to French, music, dancing, painting,
prepare students for college) . Shortly singing, grammar, and sometimes
thereafter, all the other New Eng- bookkeeping .
27